Pokémon TCG Pocket

Volt-Ikazuchi · Mar 29, 2026

CTNC said:
NGL, this post is venting and hoping anyone who hasn't installed this game takes it as a warning to not get into it.

Just uninstalled the game after losing to a new meta deck because coin flips stopped me from doing anything the entire game. Am I overreacting? I'm pretty sure rage uninstalling after just one game means yes, but I know I'll have more "games" like that if I keep playing. Knowing you'll lose on the Ranked Mode, the supposed competitive PvP mode, because of coin flips... That sounds like a massive sin of game design.

Remember all the times I complained about flip a coin until you get tails? Well, there's a card from a few sets ago that is worse because you get to see it keep getting played again after every heads.

Of all the ways to do power creep, coin flip Potion?! Really?! WHY?!

It can go into any deck and it's healing instead of Energy, so it's much more likely to turn your next turn victory into a soul crushing loss. (Ironically, this made me like using a Water Deck because of having a consistent Heal 40 HP card instead of Coin Flip Potion. Water has gone from Misty spam to the only deck to not use flip a coin until tails.)

(For anyone who's reading this but doesn't play the TCG: Sleep makes you flip a coin between turns to wake up. If you're asleep, you can't attack or retreat.)

My first game against the new "throw coins at your opponent" deck had my opponent get both their Darkrai on their bench and my Suicune EX couldn't do anything against an Igglybuff. Needless to say, just one attack would've been enough to KO it. Oh, and for insult to injury, the deck's finisher is my favorite Pokemon's Mega Evolution. I'm NOT letting this game ruin Altaria for me.

I'm honestly thankful the first game against that deck was that bad so I'd know how bad it would be to keep playing. Games are supposed to be fun, not a facade for a coin flip simulator.

I haven't played Ranked since Suicune was released.

The game is nice, but it has a serious content issue.
Everything relies on Ranked not feeling like a kick in the nuts and a double shift.

And then they released Hydreigon and Lucky Ice Opps.

Still nice as a collecting game tho.

R_N · Mar 29, 2026

Volt-Ikazuchi said:
Still nice as a collecting game tho.

As someone who had been waning on the game and finally dropped it after finishing out the 30-day (...ridiculous...) bonus stuff: I don't think it is good as a collecting game
The pack point system is awful and demoralizing. Arranging trades is like pulling teeth. Finding trades is like pulling wisdom teeth.

Some of this is just part & parcel with being a mobile gacha (since in real life, you can always just buy singles) but at the same time it is insane to pull a fairly large number of packs and whiff even basic cards. And the prices to get even those? Terrible. not even the rares, which are also terrible to get.

And that makes it worse if you do want to mess with decks. it takes forever to build anything, if you can build it at all, and by the time I can I just don't want to bother. I'd already stopped going through the CPU stuff.

Wonder Pick suuuuuckssssssssssss.

And don't get me started on the nonsense with the Deluxe Pack.

meanwhile it is insane to me how the past few sets have started reusing EX art (Paldean Wonders) and illustration art (both PW & the current one). I am totally fine with most of the regular cards being reused but the EX renders and all the IRs should absolutely continue to be unique, it just takes a big blow out of collecting.

ant4456 · Mar 29, 2026

this game sucks because the animations make everything take approximately 50 years longer than they should. I'm just tryna login to get my shit tier 5 cards for the morning and it takes 3 minutes and hogs my phone

and if i decide hmm imma just close the app aftrr getting my shit cards and dont wait for the animation next time i open it for my free pack it adds to the time with a stupid popup like I KNOW

this game somehow has no new types of content or ways to collect or *real* modes and its just kinda boring

Volt-Ikazuchi · Mar 29, 2026

It took me 3 days to complete the current set in 2 different accounts. It's not that bad to get cards to play.

But yeah, the game has a ton of problems. Some would be a bit easier to fix, some not so much, but it's not that bad.

R_N · Mar 30, 2026

Volt-Ikazuchi said:
It took me 3 days to complete the current set in 2 different accounts. It's not that bad to get cards to play.

But yeah, the game has a ton of problems. Some would be a bit easier to fix, some not so much, but it's not that bad.

It's great you had a good time getting playable cards but that is not always my experience, especially on larger sets. i'm definitely not the only one that feels the burn.

*This* particular set is very small and I happened to be lucky in some ways (like 4 gengars?? got both IRs in one pack?!) but not others (several rares, uncommons of all things. Did you know I got to like 900 pack points on fantastical parade and was still missing a rare and a COMMON???). One friend went on a full dry spell. Another friend completed the entire set basically in one day.
Meanwhile Paldean Wonders i got like 2 EXes on my own and everything else came from friends. Fantastical parade was a nightmare, other "normal sized" sets often could be that too.
Gachas gonna gacha but when it's rough it's rough and it wears on you on top of everything else. Ant's right in how long it takes to just go through menus. Just real salt on everything else, you know?

But like I said I've dropped the game now, it just felt like a good point to pull out, so it's kind of whatever. I'm curious if they'll ever overhaul anything, especially mode-wise.

Also one last "what were they thinking" with rental decks requiring the EX. So often over the last year & change I would have everything for a deck BUT the ex, so even if I wanted to play with the dinky subpar premades I just. Couldn't. Seems like it'd be better to shift it so you could get the rental if you had the EX or if you had we'll say 5-10 of the cards.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Mar 30, 2026

R_N said:
It's great you had a good time getting playable cards but that is not always my experience, especially on larger sets. i'm definitely not the only one that feels the burn.

*This* particular set is very small and I happened to be lucky in some ways (like 4 gengars?? got both IRs in one pack?!) but not others (several rares, uncommons of all things. Did you know I got to like 900 pack points on fantastical parade and was still missing a rare and a COMMON???). One friend went on a full dry spell. Another friend completed the entire set basically in one day.
Meanwhile Paldean Wonders i got like 2 EXes on my own and everything else came from friends. Fantastical parade was a nightmare, other "normal sized" sets often could be that too.
Gachas gonna gacha but when it's rough it's rough and it wears on you on top of everything else. Ant's right in how long it takes to just go through menus. Just real salt on everything else, you know?

But like I said I've dropped the game now, it just felt like a good point to pull out, so it's kind of whatever. I'm curious if they'll ever overhaul anything, especially mode-wise.

Also one last "what were they thinking" with rental decks requiring the EX. So often over the last year & change I would have everything for a deck BUT the ex, so even if I wanted to play with the dinky subpar premades I just. Couldn't. Seems like it'd be better to shift it so you could get the rental if you had the EX or if you had we'll say 5-10 of the cards.

A lot of people have been getting burnout from this game.

Contrary to popular belief, the general odds haven't changed. Fantastical Parade was weird and I hope they never do a big set like that again, because they diluted the individual odds and it was a mess.

So in my experience, getting the cards I need to build decks with isn't a problem. My problem is wanting to battle to begin with. Ranked honestly feels like a chore. Random battles are great, but still not enough.

This game desperately needs some kind of story content.

ant4456 · Mar 30, 2026

Volt-Ikazuchi said:
This game desperately needs some kind of story content.

what we need is pokemon duel back and they advertise it this time... this will fix society #tbh

DrrT · Mar 30, 2026

the thing that fascinates me abour Pocket is that it's clearly a lot of people's first gacha. they are always completely delusional about it and even try to deny it, because they don't want to admit they are gambling, apparently believing that opening a sealed pack is diffwrent from the usual gacha summon in more ways than aesthetics. a lot of the complains and suggestions can really be answered with "that would kill a gacha".
however it also goes in the opposite direction, the amount of mental gymnastics being used to justify how incredibly slow the menus are is pure nonsense.

It just feels tiring to have any kind of proper discussion about it because the fanbase is so huge (understandably) and most of it fall into one of these two camps. hell, I was going to mention that reusing so many physical card arts lately is a big deal, but people have genuinely tried to convince le that it's actually a *good* thing so yeah...

R_N · Mar 30, 2026

DrrT said:
hell, I was going to mention that reusing so many physical card arts lately is a big deal, but people have genuinely tried to convince le that it's actually a *good* thing so yeah...

A good thing for who????

leafsaber47 · Mar 30, 2026

...I knew TCG Pocket was a fad!

Unironically I'd rather play Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond than touch this game ever again.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Mar 31, 2026

R_N said:
A good thing for who????

BROKE PEOPLE LIKE ME! :totodiLUL:

Fr tho, scalpers and """investors""" absolutely destroyed OG TCG. I know none of y'all got these cards outside of Pocket.

I won't say it's a good thing, of course, but it's why I don't have a problem with it.

DrrT said:
a lot of the complains and suggestions can really be answered with "that would kill a gacha".

Ppl really want free shit with no consequences :totodiLUL:

It's extremely rare to see someone actually make suggestions that would be sensible from a financial standpoint. I do like that the game is very f2p-friendly though. You can absolutely just walk in and be super fine even if you don't really know what you're doing at first.

DrrT said:
the amount of mental gymnastics being used to justify how incredibly slow the menus are is pure nonsense.

Ts is inexcusable though. This game legit runs like it got Denuvo on it, they slap online checks and anti-cheats everywhere on it and it legit makes the game borderline unplayable on a technical sense.

For example, I literally can't play this game if not on WiFi, which defeats the whole purpose of a mobile game lmaooooo

leafsaber47 · Mar 31, 2026

I remember being tortured by this game and was unnerved by how dogwater the UI (and probably UX) was. This has nothing to do with the visual design, by the way, despite looking like it came straight out of SwSh (then again the game doesn't have a Galar set yet ironically).

DrrT · Mar 31, 2026

R_N said:
A good thing for who????

There is apparently at least a couple Pokemon fans out there that genuinely claim that since Pocket sucks, artists shouldn't be "wasted" on non-physical cards. I don't think they quite grasp how being a freelancer works, mind you, but still.

At this point I just feel pretty disconnected from the fandom, for example I did love the Paldea set was indeed all Gen 9 mons only (plus pre evos). Reminds me of the BW1 days.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Apr 1, 2026

DrrT said:
There is apparently at least a couple Pokemon fans out there that genuinely claim that since Pocket sucks, artists shouldn't be "wasted" on non-physical cards. I don't think they quite grasp how being a freelancer works, mind you, but still.

At this point I just feel pretty disconnected from the fandom, for example I did love the Paldea set was indeed all Gen 9 mons only (plus pre evos). Reminds me of the BW1 days.

To be fair, the fandom is so big, that it's easy to disconnect from the masses.

Especially when they're either objectively wrong, and/or whining non-stop.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Apr 4, 2026

Any of y'all got a RR Zapdos that you'd be willing to part with? Need it for the emblem

Edit: Pic for reference

Edit: got it last night

ant4456 · Apr 5, 2026

i think the worst part about this game is the second you quit for more than a month its ggs its over

you already missed like 2 copy paste events with boring gameplay to get exclusive cards/cosmetics

they already released an entirely new set and you're gonna be one more behind forever, not even that you'd usually solidly finish one without luck as a f2p player, but that you'd usually get close enough

and i think the devs dont actually understand how toxic that is to the game because tbh the only reason i login is bc i wanna see how many days it will take me to pull full art sylveon ex in eevee grove (been about a month of putting all my packs into it and still not even a regular sylveon ex btw)

but im not gonna grind the events or play the bad pvp or even really care because i know after quitting for a long time that i will never ever ever catch up, and even if i did i would just have to keep playing forever, no breaks, and its just not that fun

Volt-Ikazuchi · Apr 5, 2026

ant4456 said:
i think the worst part about this game is the second you quit for more than a month its ggs its over

you already missed like 2 copy paste events with boring gameplay to get exclusive cards/cosmetics

they already released an entirely new set and you're gonna be one more behind forever, not even that you'd usually solidly finish one without luck as a f2p player, but that you'd usually get close enough

and i think the devs dont actually understand how toxic that is to the game because tbh the only reason i login is bc i wanna see how many days it will take me to pull full art sylveon ex in eevee grove (been about a month of putting all my packs into it and still not even a regular sylveon ex btw)

but im not gonna grind the events or play the bad pvp or even really care because i know after quitting for a long time that i will never ever ever catch up, and even if i did i would just have to keep playing forever, no breaks, and its just not that fun

So how come people are complaining that Hydreigon, Suicune, and Mega Altaria are still top tier?

Y'all just saying stuff now.

ant4456 · Apr 5, 2026

Volt-Ikazuchi said:
So how come people are complaining that Hydreigon, Suicune, and Mega Altaria are still top tier?

Y'all just saying stuff now.

i dont care about the pvp and honestly 1 out of like 6 people i know that played tcg pocket cared about it, and that guy went on to tcg live because the only thing pocket has over that is graphics

leafsaber47 · Apr 5, 2026

ant4456 said:
i think the worst part about this game is the second you quit for more than a month its ggs its over

you already missed like 2 copy paste events with boring gameplay to get exclusive cards/cosmetics

they already released an entirely new set and you're gonna be one more behind forever, not even that you'd usually solidly finish one without luck as a f2p player, but that you'd usually get close enough

and i think the devs dont actually understand how toxic that is to the game because tbh the only reason i login is bc i wanna see how many days it will take me to pull full art sylveon ex in eevee grove (been about a month of putting all my packs into it and still not even a regular sylveon ex btw)

but im not gonna grind the events or play the bad pvp or even really care because i know after quitting for a long time that i will never ever ever catch up, and even if i did i would just have to keep playing forever, no breaks, and its just not that fun

DeNA releases sets monthly. You don't know how fast that is.

Once more, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond somehow does this better. Two month set gap — which is at least better than what TCG Pocket has done since day 1.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Jul 3, 2026

Pokemongift said:
We’ve essentially stopped sending friend requests to people who have cards we’ve added to their wishlist. Instead, we’re swiping right on everyone, just like on Tinder, and adding them to our collection. We wish we could see the cards they’re missing when they reach their share limit to trade quickly.

The trade and share interfaces having parts that are desperately missing on each other is diabolical.

Sharing doesn't put Wishlisted cards on the top of the cards you may send, and Trading doesn't show what cards they're missing to complete the set.

Dena, WHAT THE :rayquaza: IS THIS UI!?

DaRotomMachine · Jul 4, 2026

ant4456 said:
i dont care about the pvp and honestly 1 out of like 6 people i know that played tcg pocket cared about it, and that guy went on to tcg live because the only thing pocket has over that is graphics

As one of the few that care about pvp I've also moved on to looking into the actual tcg card game because tcg pocket genuinely has nothing over smth like tcg live; i just find it more fun to play the actual card game than pthe simplified game that pocket provides.
I was talking with a couple of friends about this and we talked about the possible addition of adding something like a bigger deck format and just changing how trades work because they were pissed at how hard it was to work with

DaRotomMachine · Jul 5, 2026

Pokemongift said:
Since Crimson Blaze dropped, we’ve just been playing Charizard. Entei ex and Charmeleon are cooked on the ladder. We just made an attempt to create a deck with the cards we have for a good hand. We lose to Sceptile ex, Venusaur ex, Milotic ex, and the worst card in Pocket, Oricorio.

1x Moltres ex (Genetic Apex: Charizard)
1x Charmander (Crimson Blaze)
1x Mega Charizard Y ex (Crimson Blaze)
1x Victini (Pulsing Aura)
1x Hand Scope (Promo)
1x Pokedex (Promo)
2x Poké Ball (Promo)
2x Rare Candy (Celestial Guardians)
2x Rotom Dex (Celestial Guardians: Solgaleo)
2x Flame Patch (Mega Rising: Blaziken)
1x Lucky Egg (Pulsing Aura)
2x Professor’s Research (Promo)
2x Copycat (Mega Rising: Altaria)
1x Serena (Crimson Blaze)

Game Plan: If you all are not set up with Charizard by Turn 5, then by Turn 7, you all should have the game locked in. Use Rotom Dex to search for a Supporter or to check if your all’s next card is what you all need for the next turn, immediately or just shuffle. We used to toy with 2x Pokédex, but the game trolls us or what it feels like blocking us from getting Mega Charizard Y set up as quickly as possible. Hand Scope is for a better card that just eats up for a better Copycat later use. Serena is just there when it decides to work. With so few Pokémon, Serena can be stronger than Professor’s Research, but you all’s wonder why 2x Poké Balls or 2x Rare Candy; it’s for the better in our experience, you all just need to have them ready.

Having only one line of charizard is what I think is getting me; if the charmander is beaten early (which is easy to do nowadays) then this deck is going absolutely nowhere. while I see the vision I think Charizard should run entei (and charmeleon) regardless as a genuine draw engine (part of why the deck works as it does) \The oricorio matchup is almost unwinnable there's nothing one can really do about that.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Jul 5, 2026

DaRotomMachine said:
As one of the few that care about pvp I've also moved on to looking into the actual tcg card game because tcg pocket genuinely has nothing over smth like tcg live; i just find it more fun to play the actual card game than pthe simplified game that pocket provides.
I was talking with a couple of friends about this and we talked about the possible addition of adding something like a bigger deck format and just changing how trades work because they were pissed at how hard it was to work with

I actually like Pocket's lower power format compared to TCG's outrageous inflation.

Volt-Ikazuchi · Jul 9, 2026

Pokemongift said:
Same. We didn’t consider the Power Format because we thought when the app first launched it was a different game. We watched this video last week and after watching it, we thought, “We believe we’re not really missing much.” To be fair, we dropped Pocket initially because of the ‘gacha,’ and trading sucked early into its lifespan. But what we’re trying to get at is if one of the goals was for us to get into the TCG they already failed with us. The day we dropped Pocket, we downloaded TCG Live, because you also get all the cards, so to speak, so you all can learn faster the metagame, however we were quickly turned off you all needed a Pokémon Trainer Club Account (no thanks). And vice versa, we also don’t think any tech player will play Pokémon Pocket. The real TCG does provide an authentic experience, we think, just based on the shuffles. Just to change gears, we were playing a meta deck (featured on a website that covers Pocket) with Suicune, Bax, and Chien-Pao, and we played two games online where we drew Frigi in our starting hand. Is this a problem in the TCG, probably, but it doesn’t matter because it’s better (This can also happen to all of us in our Miraidon decks? Plus, games last up to like 45 minutes. But our interpretation is that Does the app (Pokémon Pocket) want us to use Eevee or something? Also we know Sleep is easy to use and needs to be nerfed, but are tournament players really allowed to have a Pokémon Center Lady?Also, we know Sleep is easy to use and needs to be nerfed, but are tournament players really allowed to have a Pokémon Center Lady? (We think this card sucks because you’re all going to sleep next turn anyways and also not trading favorably because battles are short.)

Most decks are teching Ogerpon, Comfey (on psychic), Steel Apron (on metal), or double PCL against Sleep. It's been proving effective, and tournament results show it's being used less and having worse results.
Sleep is pretty broken as a status condition though.

PCL doesn't suck because as long as your attacker is ready, you just need one attack to get rid of whatever is inflicting sleep. It can provide you a much needed retreat or attack on your turn, and its a decent heal, especially if paired with Lucky Ice Pop. You may try Big Malasada if you want to use another supporter on the same turn.

Also, bricking is almost inevitable. One can't expect a perfect starting hand every game.

DrPumpkinz · Jul 29, 2026

Welp, the new update just fucking crashes immediately for me.